Sunday, July 07, 2013

Visit with Father Aaron

Having a lovely visit with Chaplain Captain Father AJ. We did Frank's NY Pizzeria Friday night for his and my favorite eggplant parmigian. Saturday all day at the farmer's market. Hot, hot, hot. Was doing AM chores before leaving for Hamilton when I grabbed the horns of a buck I've been trying to catch for weeks. Tied him to a post and went to get AJ to hold him for me. Got him wormed, hooves and sheared. Feisty guy who kept trying to bite me but AJ kept the snapping jaws away from my hands. He's sold to a man who raises Jacobs as soon as I can deliver him, along with another handsome junior buck. So lucky to get the boys out of here before they can do any damage. I have enough red goat kids. Would so much rather get a little $$ for the intact boys instead of putting them in the freezer...the dark side of farming. Got Lukie ready and motored over to the Hamilton market where Matt had set up and was already doing business. Market was slow but picked up with many July 4th tourists coming through. The market can be the agony or ecstasy. More the latter than the former this week, luckily. My handspun basket is looking very healthy these days with me spinning every chance I get and with contributions from Annie and Kim. I love the stuff and don't care if I ever sell any of it. Funny how I'm not anxious to knit with it, either. The fantasy of what I can make with it always exceeds reality. Wish I was a better knitter. I always have something on the needles but often it is a less exciting yarn I'm turning into a sock - notice singular sock. I suffer from "second sock syndrome" where the other foot is neglected. The morning wore on with Lukie reading his book under the table, munching on Robin Mizrahi's granola, and much chatting with customers/friends stopping by. Susanne Farrington came for more wool and I picked up shaving mugs from her. Some Morristown NJ friends, the Fritze family, stopped in to visit and found out they live right next to Mia on Madison Avenue. I've stared out of her third floor bathroom at the magnificent and massive Victorian, wondering what kind of people live in such a palatial house and turns out I know them! Didn't make their acquaintance until I move here. Small world. Packed up - oh, so nice to have all the hands to help - and ate lunch at the cheap and delicious Indian buffet on the square. Would have been more enjoyable but the lack of AC made us feel like we were really in Bombay and not Hamilton. Lukie had rice and nan bread. Back at the farm there was only one way to cool us down from the heat of the day. Funny how the cold spring water of the pond straightens me right out. Young Bertha joined us with swimming out to us and back several times. She let me hold on to her and gave me a ride across the pond. Dogs are funny, some wade in and barely allow the water to touch their bellies. Bertha is turning out to a water dog, like my sainted Bodie, who was the best water dog ever. Father Aaron floated around the pond on a raft with Luke conspiring to tip him, which he accomplished. I cooked dinner, Lukie requested burgers, in the hot apartment but after cooling off in the pond it was not so bad. The boys watched an awful movie, Batman Dark Rises, which dragged on forever and kind of spoiled the high of the day for me. Would much rather have been sitting around a camp fire outside, but the boys have to have their computers and games going. I pull them away for evening chores, hah hah. Woke up to the White Boys telling me something's up. Looked out to see a black sky, rumbling thunder and white flashes across the sky. Looks like it's rolling through. Matt and the boys are going to services at the Episcopal Church in New Berlin. I have Loren coming at 9 to help me with a nasty job - emptying and hosing out the milk room. Disgusting things growing on the floor and corners with junk and old hay, etc. Got to be done and Loren's asking for work. Won't make him face this one alone.